The re-energized focus on Long Island Sound's story is obvious in the colorfully redesigned main hall, which has been renamed Newman's Own Hall in celebration of a $1.2 million grant from Newman's Own Foundation."

Pull yourself away from the seals to enter The Sound & Beyond, beginning with the new Sharks & Rays Gallery. Centerpiece of the gallery is a large supervised "Shark & Ray Touch Pool," where you can gently stroke the backs of several species of sharks and a variety of rays.Plus, see baby sharks before (and after) they're born, touch shark teeth, pose in a dive cage and explore why we're so fascinated with sharks – plus learn the troubling consequences of our misguided fears about sharks.

Then enter ...

Go Fish! Exhibit

"Go Fish! Long Island Sound & Beyond" explores our important cultural connections to fish and includes one of the Aquarium’s largest tanks, full of cod, salmon, pollock, halibut and other game fish that have been historically important in New England. There’s also a fishing boat for children to play in, a Wii fishing game, and a “Sustainable Seafood” café that offers tips on being a smart seafood consumer. Be sure to pick up a Seafood Watch pocket guide to help you make smart choices when you're at restaurants and markets. Exit left out of "Go Fish" to ...

Marine Care & Culture Lab

These displays bring some of the aquarium operations that formerly were behind-the-scenes out into the open for visitors to witness. These include the jellyfish and seahorse “nurseries,” where our year-round supply of these delicate animals are raised. You'll also sometimes see treatment tanks, where fish new to the aquarium stay until their health is assured for the exhibit population. Adjacent to the lab is ...

Jiggle a Jelly

Touch-a-jellyfish exhibit open on weekends and holidays. Daily in July & August.

This new exhibit invites you to do something you've tried to NOT do all your life: touch jellyfish!

Gently touch the tops of live moon jellies as they pulse in our new exhibit, which is open on weekends & holidays.

How is this possible without being stung? The stinging cells of moon jellyfish hang on tentacles below their bodies. Also, their sting is known to be relatively benign for most people.

Dragons! Real or Myth?

New special exhibit now open.

See a baby black dragon – one of only an estimated 31 in the U.S. – in the only place in the country to exhibit one: in our new special exhibit, “Dragons! Real or Myth?,” opening Feb. 14.

The exhibit stars the black dragon and other animals that have the word dragon in their names. The black dragon is a water-monitor lizard that has a “melanistic” gene that makes it all black. (Similar to what makes an albino animal all white.) You won’t find one in any other U.S. aquarium or zoo; all other known black dragons are privately owned.

"Dragons! Real or Myth?" lets you also get close to such species as: dragon moray eels; a seahorse cousin called the weedy sea dragon; fish called dragon wrasses; and terrestrial lizards like flying dragons, sailfin dragons, bearded dragons, frilled dragons and more.

Besides highlighting the unique characteristics of these animals, the exhibit explores the facts and fictions about mythological dragons and their roles in cultures throughout time. Guests are encouraged to find similarities between the displayed live creatures and the fire-breathing dragons of lore.

Entry into “Dragons! Real or Myth?” is free with Aquarium admission.

The dragons will be on exhibit in the the same area as the Meerkats.

Meerkats

"They're so cuuuuute!" Meet a family of meerkats, one of Africa’s most entertaining species.

First popularized by the comical sidekick Timon in Disney’s “The Lion King” and then celebrated in the Animal Planet television series “Meerkat Manor," meerkats are members of the mongoose family that live in social “mobs” or “gangs” in burrows in the Kalahari Desert, in the southern African nations of Botswana and South Africa.

No mere cats, meerkats (Suricata suricatta) are fascinating for living in structured but cooperative societies, including a foraging strategy where adults take turns standing guard upright on their hind feet, watching for predators, while the others eat.

The exhibit features six sibling meerkats – three males, three females – born in the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City, Utah. Their Maritime Aquarium habitat offers windows into their underground burrows, so all meerkat activity is within view. A viewing bubble even lets young visitors stand up right among the meerkats.

Frogs!

One of our coolest exhibits. We feature dozens of species of frogs, toad and other amphibians from around the world – including some of our native examples but also tomato frogs (pictured), colorful poison dart frogs, the bizarre Surinam toad that looks more like ... well, like flattened roadkill, and more. Learn why amphibians are so special, but also the alarming facts behind why their numbers are dramatically decreasing worldwide.